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I have swarm that I hived in mid May. They are VERY strong for a swarm. When I hived them, they completely over filled a deep body. I wanted to give them drawn comb to start with, so I put a medium super on top. Yesterday when I was checking some damaged foundation in the deep I moved the medium under the deep and noticed they were drawing the foundation out in the deep. I checked the frames in the medium and noticed that they had it full of larve and capped honey. Now I want to move this medium off the hive and replace it with another deep. What is the best way to get them to stop laying in the medium, and to move their honey without killing larve, or taking honey from them? TIA

Make sure there is some brood in the deep and put the queen on the brood. Put an excluder on top of the deep and put the medium on top of that. In 24 days the last of the brood (including the drones) will have emerged from the medium. You can do what you like with it then. If you have no brood in the deep, you can put two frames of brood from the medium and the queen in the deep until the queen is laying in the deeps. Then you can cut the excess comb off the bottom of the mediums and move it back up.

Of course, I'd try to get them out of the deeps and into all mediums. [img]smile.gif[/img] Deeps are WAY too heavy.

If the deep has 8 or more frames drawn out, just add the second deep now and when it is drawn out, the queen will move down into the deeps. Just keep adding boxes and moving the med. up until the mission is accomplished.